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Most Recent Posts Posted Sep-15-08 17:35:48 PDT   Photograph; Wild Bill, Texas Jack,
Buffalo Bill, from negative first
taken in New York in 1873; copy;
circa 1900; boudoir-sized; $2,990.
Photo courtesy of Cowan's.Buffalo Bill and the Wild West of Our Imagination
Santa Fe, Sept. 15, 2008 — Picture if you will, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. The year is 1902. The Star Spangled Banner is playing. The doors of the arena open and out gallops four horses lugging a stagecoach.
The Indians race in behind the coach and the chase is on around the showground. They fire their guns — whooping and yelling as their war bonnets stream behind them.
Next Annie Oakley’s sharp shooting act comes out followed by a U.S. Artillery drill and Pony Express riders. Throw
in the ten-gallon hats, lots of buckskin, gleaming spurs, and rodeo
rough riders and you have three hours of action-packed Wild West drama.
The West had traveled east complete with Buffalo Bill prancing out on his white charger.
The effect was immediate and electric. Cody was a master at creating the Wild West of our imagination.
Half truth, half fiction, Buffalo Bill Cody loved playing the Western scout on stage. It was one place in life where happy endings were a guarantee and the applause — it was so sweet.
“Buffalo Bill was one of the world’s great men. I don’t mean wise, but I do mean great. His heart was as big as his show tent;” said fatherless boy and American artist Dan Muller who Cody took in and raised.
Cody even talked Wild Bill Hickok into joining the troupe. Then there was cowboy-scout Texas Jack who was the first performer to introduce roping acts to the American stage.
In terms of Western collectibles, Buffalo Bill is big. Anything he owned or laid his hands on is going to command top dollar. Solid documentation to prove the connection is a must. Provenance is everything.
On
June 5, Cowan’s in Cincinnati, Ohio, featured a selection of vintage
Cody photos, cabinet cards, programs and letters in its Western and
Historic Americana sale.
A cabinet card photo of Wild West Show cohort Annie Oakley with a single shot rifle in hand sold for $4,600.
Read the entire article at http://www.LiveAuctionTalk.com
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Rosemary McKittrick brings history to life in her weekly column.
Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved. Posted Sep-07-08 07:10:44 PDT eptember 7, 2008 — Rosemary McKittrick | Edit
Black-and-white photo; reprinted print; circa 1952; sold for $144.
Photo courtesy of Bonhams & Butterfields.
LiveAuctionTalk.com Showcases Marilyn Monroe
Santa Fe, Sept. 7, 2008 — If Marilyn Monroe were alive today she would be 82-years-old. It’s hard to believe.
Monroe is as controversial in death as she was in life.
Who was Monroe
really? Was she the innocent kid, glamour queen, sex pot, eternal
icon, fading star, dumb blonde, frenzied manipulator or lost soul? All
of these adjectives have been used to describe her at one time or
another.
“There are always two sides to a story,” she said of herself. In her case there were more.
When celebrity photographer and author George Barris asked Monroe in 1962 what she wanted most out of life she said, “I feel I’m just getting started.”
She was in great spirits, full of life, he said.
The blonde bombshell was found dead shortly after in the bedroom of her Brentwood, Calif., home from an overdose of pills.
Her sudden death shocked Barris and everyone else.
Barris shot some of the last photographs ever taken of her. He had been assigned by Cosmopolitan Magazine to interview and photograph Monroe on the movie set of her final film “Something’s Got to Give.”
In terms of collecting celebrities, Monroe ranks right there at the top along with Elvis. Collectors born long after she died are as excited about Monroe and her “stuff” as those who collected the star during her lifetime.
Popularity for Monroe doesn’t seem to be waning either.
On June 16, Bonhams & Butterfields, Los Angeles, featured a number of Monroe items in its Entertainment Memorabilia auction.
A
pearl-gray 1950s wool sweater with short sleeves, collar and three
buttons at the neck estimated to bring $600-$800, sold for $6,000.
Read the entire article at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com
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Rosemary McKittrick
celebrates the bits and pieces of history that come up for sale at
auction in her weekly column. Do you know one or two people who should
be receiving these updates? Please let them know and encourage them to
visit the site and sign up.
Rosemary McKittrick
info@liveauctiontalk.com
Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved. Posted Aug-26-08 11:37:39 PDT  Hopi; depicting young woman
in traditional attire; attached
tags
reads “Hopi Doll, Tom
Pavatea; 12 ¾ inches high;
sold for $12,000.
Photo courtesy
of Bonhams & Butterfields.
LiveAuctionTalk.com Highlights Kachina Legends
Aug. 27, 2008
-- The kiva has been at the heart of Hopi tradition for more than 1,000
years. Like churches, the round
ceremonial chambers are holy sites.
The Hopis believe life began in the kivas. The first humans, they say, left their dark
home in the earth’s interior and climbed upward toward the light and the
present world through a hole in the floor of the kiva. They also believe they will return to the
underworld when they die.
The kachinas were the spiritual beings who taught the Hopis how
to live on earth after their emergence.
The kachina dolls are religious icons. They represent the spirit essence of
everything in the real world. They’re
like statues of saints.
In Hopi, the word Kachina (Katsina or Qatsina) means
"life bringer". Among the
Pueblos Indian tribes like the Zuni and Hopi, the kachina, or rain deity, is a
supernatural being responsible for the tribe’s very survival.
Without its help, the rivers won’t flow and the crops don’t
grow.
Kachina dolls are carved from cottonwood root and painted to
represent figures from Hopi mythology.
Genuine kachina dolls are made by only a small number of Hopi carvers
who have dedicated their lives to the art--it
takes years of practice and religious study to master.
It’s an ancient tradition.
As far back as the 1500s, the Spanish wrote about seeing bizarre images
of the devil, most likely kachina dolls,
hanging in pueblo homes.
It’s impossible to have a complete collection of all the
kachinas made because the art form is continually changing. The carvers who make them also do so out of
their own perception of what the kachina looks like.
On June 9, Bonhams & Butterfields featured a selection
of kachina dolls in its Native American and Pre-Columbian Art auction.
A Hopi figure depicting a
young woman in traditional attire; attached tags read “Hopi Doll, Tom Pavatea;
12 ¾ inches high sold for $12,000.
Read the entire article at http://www.LiveAuctionTalk.com
RSS: http://www.liveauctiontalk.com/rss/lat.rss
Rosemary
McKittrick celebrates the bits and pieces of history that
come up for sale at auction in her weekly column.
Do you know one or two people who should be receiving these updates?
Please let them know and encourage them to visit the site and sign up.
Rosemary McKittrick
info@liveauctiontalk.com
Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved.
Posted Aug-19-08 10:00:41 PDT Updated Aug-19-08 12:19:05 PDT 
Empress of Britain; color
lithographic poster; in 1931;
36 inches by 24 inches; sold
for $3,120. Photo courtesy of
Swann Auction Galleries.
Oceanliner Memorabilia Brings Back Opulent Time in History
Santa Fe,
Aug. 19. — Designed for luxury, the “Empress of Britain” was a giant
ocean liner full of seagoing splendor and surprises as she prepared for
her inaugural launch on June 11, 1930.
Decorated by artists of the British Royal Academy, the ship was an interesting mix of cross-cultural tradition and art deco glamour. Upright and imposing, the Empress was a floating city complete with swimming pool and tennis courts.
A Chinese motif rounded out her smoking room. Her “Mayfair” lounge was Renaissance in design, her card room had a Spanish motif, and the first class dining room was contemporary.
The ship’s accommodations ranged from extravagant suites to tiny inside cabins. Two of the largest suites even had their own balconies. All of the cabins had a washbasin and some were equipped with full bathrooms.
Pale blue columns with coral pink curtains surrounded the ballroom. An oval-shaped ceiling, picturing plenty of blue sky and white stars dangled above the dance floor.
The officers and crew almost always outnumbered her passengers. Service was the key ingredient on this luxury cruises. The Empress even had a gym equipped with bicycling machines, electric horses and punch balls.
Opulence is the magic behind ocean liner memorabilia for today’s collector. These floating cities were larger-then-life, decorated like scenes out of French oil paintings.
Replaced by jet travel, they ultimately became a thing of the past.
On May 22, Swann Galleries, New York, featured oceanliner memorabilia from the Frank O. Braynard Collection at auction. An Empress of Britain color lithographic poster; in 1931; 36 inches by 24 inches; sold for $3,120.
Read the entire article at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com
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Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved. Posted Aug-10-08 15:50:22 PDT  Punch cigar store figure; attributed to the shop of carver Samuel
Robb; 75 inches high; late-19th century sold for $187,200. Photo
courtesy of Pook & Pook.
Cigar Store Carvings as Popular Now as Ever
Santa Fe, Aug. 10 -- Standing vigil outside tobacco shops in towns and villages
all over America
in the 19th century was Samuel A.
Robb's cigar store Indians.
Like barber shop poles, these silent fixtures, fashioned
mostly out of white pine from the odds-and-ends of ship spars or recycled
railroad ties--are the art work of the everyday man. Today we call them folk artists.
Robb opened his Canal Street
wood-carving shop in 1886 just across the street from what is now Chinatown
in Manhattan, the largest shop of
its kind in New York.
The first floor of his two-story building was a long room
with dirt floors mixed with deep deposits of wood chips. Wooden squaws and unpainted baseball players
lined the wall.
Paper and cardboard patterns were scattered around the floor
and signs of shaping, carving and painting were everywhere. From the rafters upstairs hung a pulley built
especially for raising and lowering dozens of wood advertising creations.
The cigar store Indian and the "Punch" figure are two examples
of the types of advertising carvings chiseled each month. These sidewalk figures were made to catch the
attention of passersby and let them know tobacco was sold inside. The Punch figure with his raised forefinger
and dirty-old-men leer coaxed you into the store.
The average cigar smoker in America
in the late-1800s couldn't read the words smoke shop or, for that matter, any
other signage. So these cigar store
figures pointed the way.
On April 18, Pook & Pook Auctioneers in Downingtown,
Pa., offered a Punch cigar store figure
attributed to the shop of Samuel Robb in its
antique auction.
The 75 inch high polychromed decorated figure sat on its
original base inscribed "Cigars Tobacco/Havana Cigars/Smoker's Articles". The late-19th century Punch was in
remarkably untouched condition and sold for $187,200.
Read the entire article at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com
RSS: http://www.liveauctiontalk.com/rss/lat.rss Rosemary
McKittrick's website is an antiques and collectibles price
guide. It also offers info on auctions,
antique repair and restoration, directories for collector's, listings on appraisal services and much more. Do you know one or two people who should be receiving these articles? Let them know, and encourage them to subscribe.
Rosemary McKittrick
info@liveauctiontalk.com
505-989-7210
Copyright 2008. All Rights Reserved.
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